Acquiring Recipient Lists : TechWeb : Boston University

To University Target Constituency Groups (e.g. All Students, Faculty, Staff)

Use of the Broadcast Message System allows for messaging to entire University populations, such as all students or all faculty and staff; or to subsets of those groups, such as all students at a specific college.

No message can be sent without prior approval, so after your message is written and formatted, you will need to secure the corresponding authorization(s). Send it to the appropriate office or individual for approval as described on the Target Constituencies policy page.

To Specific Faculty or Staff

Not every faculty or staff population is covered by the mailing lists available to the broadcast message system. If you are looking for a more specific group than described by the Target Constituencies policy page, you will need to email hrsys@bu.edu to request a custom list. In your request, include your unique broadcast ID number (obtained after submitting your message for scheduling), formatted like 20230621.00:00:00, as well as when you would like to have your final message sent.

Please note: HR requires up to three business days to process this request. Please submit your request far enough in advance to account for the processing time.

Once that request is processed, the list will be sent directly to specmail@bu.edu for import into the Broadcast Message System.

To Specific Students

Not every student population is covered by the mailing lists available to the broadcast message system. If you are looking for a more specific group than described by the Target Constituencies policy page, you will need to email ourrqst@bu.edu to request a custom list. In your request, include your unique broadcast ID number (obtained after submitting your message for scheduling), formatted like 20230621.00:00:00, as well as when you would like to have your final message sent.

To a Locally-Managed Distribution List

You can provide your own distribution list(s) for use in the Broadcast Message System. This might be a list that you manage locally, or obtain from a database, or purchase. To send messages in this context, the recipients do not have to be part of the BU community. (Please note that you can also send to specific mailing lists from Outlook or a similar mail client, as described on our Mailing Lists pages.)

Typically, locally-managed lists come in an Excel spreadsheet and, if so, you should supply just the column of email addresses (each address in its own row). No other detail is needed in the spreadsheet. Obviously, when supplying the list, you’ll want to be sure that email addresses are current and remove any additional spaces or duplicate entries.

To a BUworks/SAP List

If you need to send a message to people with a specific role in BUworks/SAP, you can do that using email addresses that are output from SAP. This might include, for example, a message to all “Shoppers and Approvers” or all “Timekeepers.” Typically, if you are in this situation, you have a contact on the BUworks team who can help you generate that list, with the assistance of the SAP Security Team. Alternatively, you can submit a ticket to ithelp@bu.edu and the IT Help Center will request the list from the SAP Security Team for you.

Typically, output from SAP comes in an Excel spreadsheet and that’s all that will be needed. Obviously, when supplying the list, you’ll want to be sure that it’s current. If more than a week or two has passed since you last obtained the same list from BUworks, it’s recommended that you request a new one.

To the Key University Administrator List

If you wish to send a message to the University’s Key Administrators, you can do that using email addresses that are output from the “Key Admin List.” You should request this list at www.bu.edu/hr/home/forms/key-administrator-list/. As described below, the list will then be sent directly to the IT Help Center for import into the Broadcast Message System.